


Dawning Crystals and Other Shenanigans

by WonderWafles



Category: Destiny (Video Games)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-12-24
Updated: 2018-12-24
Packaged: 2019-09-26 14:27:27
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,277
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17143457
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WonderWafles/pseuds/WonderWafles
Summary: In the early City, the Cryptarchs have a surprise, and perhaps a use for all this bloody snow.





	Dawning Crystals and Other Shenanigans

“Hey, eyes up!” was the only warning Ecksell got before a snowball smacked her upside the head. She very nearly fell on her face as a result, but managed to right herself without pinwheeling her arms, which would certainly have been worse than falling.

“Woah!” a familiar voice behind her. “Some Hunter you are! If I were a dreg, your head would be gone right now!”

“If you were a dreg, Rose, I would have already noticed you,” Ecksell said, before pulling her hood up and sulking.

Rose laughed, high and musical like most Awoken Ecksell knew could, and sat herself down next to Ecksell. A mug of steaming liquid appeared in front of Ecksell’s face. “Want some?” Rose asked.

She took it, hesitantly. “Please tell me it’s not your tea again.”

“Calm yourself. It’s chocolate. You like chocolate, right?”

Ecksell took a sip. “Oh,” Rose said. “Oh, you might not want to – ah well, never mind.”

The heat burned her mouth. Ecksell stifled a yelp and barely avoided dropping the mug, to the sound of Rose’s muffled laughter.

They sat for a while. Above them was the Traveler, hanging broken in the sky. And before them, something marvelous.

The settlement was young. It was filled with ramshackle buildings and huts, and the Wall the Iron Lords had been talking about building was as yet a glorified fortification. But it was growing. Someday, it would be the greatest place on earth, and not only by process of elimination.

The residents were already calling it the Last City.

“Where’s Illuin?” Rose asked, eventually. “I haven’t seen her in a day or so.”

“Bashing Fallen skulls in, no doubt.”

“Maybe I can ping her Ghost-”

Ecksell shook her head, and unconsciously huddled in closer around the cup of hot chocolate. “You know how she is,” she said. “If she wants to be left alone, she will be left alone.”

“Ach, you’re right. I wish she could be a little more accessible, though. And it’s the Dawning, which means my wish has to come true.”

Ecksell snorted, which earned a beaming smile from Rose that almost made Ecksell return it. But it was cold and a little bit miserable, even if it was the Dawning, and Ecksell didn’t count it as smiling weather just yet.

Then, Padama woke up.

A Ghost appeared in a shower of light near Ecksell’s shoulders. He looked around for a few moments, disoriented, and then his gaze alighted on Ecksell.

“There you are!” he exclaimed. “I was looking for you.”

“I have literally not moved for hours, buddy.”

“I wanted to – oh, it’s cold,” Padama said, and then burrowed himself into Ecksell’s hood. “Ah, okay, I’m okay. Anyway, I have news!”

Ecksell drew the hood more snugly around him. “What news?” she asked.

“The Cryptarchs have something they want to show everyone. Down in the City.”

Rose sat up more attentively. “Everyone?” she said skeptically.

Padama nodded, or made his best attempt. “Everyone,” he said. “It’s supposed to be something big. I dunno. They just told me to tell all the Guardians I could!”

“Well, I’m interested!” Rose declared, standing up. “You in, Ecksell?”

Ecksell shrugged. “Not really.”

“Aw, what? You’re just gonna sit here until the next bounties come in?”

“I guess.”

“And then what?”

“Sleep. Oh, uh, eat something first. Sleep.”

Rose rolled her eyes. “It’s the Dawning, woman! Get up, have some fun, roll around the snow!”

Ecksell scrunched up her nose. Rose grabbed her arm. “If you come with me,” she said earnestly, “I will… give you fifty percent of the glimmer I get from our next patrol.”

“Seventy-five percent, for the next three patrols.”

“Ugh! Fine, let’s just go!”

Rose was smiling like a lunatic and this time Ecksell couldn’t help but smile back, just a tad.

“There’s that smile!” Rose cooed.

“Yeah, yeah, let’s just go.”

…

“New weapon.”

“Doubt it. Someone would have gotten ahold of it by now. Golden age computer?”

“Like they’d tell us if they had a new comp. Bet you anything it’s some history thing. You know, a lost city on the Moon or something.”

“It can’t be, that would actually be worth our time!”

The hushed conversation near Ecksell descended into snickering and shoving, before a declaration that one party was interested in lots of alcohol and wondered if the others would join them ended it.

She was standing in the middle of the nascent City, feeling the snow pricking her arms and shivering. Her Ghost had burrowed so deeply in her hood she was wary that he was going to accidentally transmat into her brain again.

“What do you think?” Padama asked her, almost too quietly to be heard if he weren’t speaking directly into her ear.

“Hmm? Oh, I don’t know. What’s the point in speculating? We’ll find out soon enough.”

“Oh, don’t be like that.”

She stuck her tongue out at nothing in particular, because her Ghost was still tucked away in her hood. A snowflake landed on top of it for her trouble. “What do you think it is?”

“I think it’s a weapon,” her Ghost said. “Like they were saying. Or! Maybe a new AI.”

Ecksell raised an eyebrow. “Rare indeed. What on earth would they do with it?”

“Who knows,” Padama said. “The Cryptarchy are a mysterious bunch.” He unconsciously slipped even further into her hood.

A Titan brushed past her. She thought she knew this one – a quiet woman, one she knew little about except that she was company she liked to keep. Her bright Awoken eyes met Ecksell’s own. “Know anything?” she asked. 

“Nah,” Ecksell replied.

“Figures,” the woman said, and then was gone again. 

Rose was talking with some Warlocks, the group hunched and dark like a murder of crows, until she turned back to Ecksell with a sunny grin on her face.

“What?” Ecksell asked as Rose approached, still grinning. “Do they know something?” She indicated the dour Guardians who watched Rose leave, their faces deep in thought or disapproval.

“Nope!” Rose said cheerily. “Not even Argus and Ferrus know anything. Isn’t that exciting?”

“Hmm. Where’s Iluin?”

“She’ll be here soon. I got a ping from Ormal. Iluin’s grumpy about something, something about losing a Fallen hoard.”

Ecksell smirked, and finished off the chocolate. It had gone cold by now, but she didn’t mind. Chocolate was chocolate, and she would never admit it, but Rose had done well.

A Hunter charged past them, followed closely by a group of children. He let out an exaggerated “Oh nooooo!” a few feet ahead of them and fell into a snowdrift, where the children pounced on him in a giggling tide of humanity. Beyond them, another Hunter had been challenged to see how long she could be held upside-down before she died. A Titan was doing the holding, while a Warlock was taking detailed notes.

“It’s good to be back, isn’t it?” Rose asked softly.

“I suppose,” Ecksell said, and smiled.

Then, a hand slapped on her back. She tensed, then relaxed as Iluin’s familiar laugh rang in her ears.

“Some Hunter you are,” she said.

“So I’ve heard.” Iluin laughed again, lower and warmer this time. Ormal floated about her shoulder, apparently not bothered by the cold.

Rose wrapped her arms around Iluin’s shoulders and kissed her squarely on the cheek. “Hello, my love,” she purred. “Did you bring me any gifts?”

Iluin sighed exaggeratedly. “I had a wonderful data pad for you,” she said wistfully. “All about observed thanatology and the Traveler. Well, you know, the ‘Great Machine.’ But then, on the way over, some birds stole it.”

“Oh, no. Damned birds.”

Iluin sighed again. “You should have seen the rest of it all, Rose. A Fallen data store. Who knows what good stuff could have been inside?”

“In a Fallen store?” Ecksell asked skeptically.

“Trust me, there’s tons of good stuff. House history, crests, lists of names and parentages-”

“Maybe once we’re done we’ll go raid some Fallen caches,” Rose said, still slumped over the larger woman like a giant housecat. “We’ll find some Fallen history and read it, just you and I.”

Iluin smiled, and kissed Rose in turn. “That does sound nice.”

“If I never have to hear Warlocks flirt again, it’ll be too soon,” Ecksell groaned from where she was sitting.

“Oh, have a little Dawning spirit,” Rose said.

“Yeah, actually, Rose and I have been talking,” Iluin said, slinging her arm around Rose and looking at Ecksell.

“We’ve decided, as your mothers,” Rose began.

“My WHAT-?”

“We’ve decided,” Rose continued firmly, “that you need to lighten up a little.”

“My mothers,” Ecksell said flatly.

“In service of this noble goal,” Iluin said, “we’ve taken the liberty of signing you – and ourselves – up for the Great Sledding taking place just outside of the City.”

“The Great Sledding?” Ecksell asked skeptically.

“It’s a newish tradition,” Rose said, grinning. “A bunch of survival-challenged Risen-”

“That’s us,” Iluin interjected dryly.

“-sled down the longest, gnarliest gauntlet of snowy hell the Hunters could find on Earth. Or, you know, in the immediate City area. But we’re thinking of expanding next year.”

It surprised Ecksell not at all to hear Rose including herself in those organizing the event.

“It would have been Sparrow racing, but the Cryptarchy is so stingy with those things,” Rose snorted. “You’d think we only had like, five.”

“We have seven, actually,” Iluin said. 

“Oh. I thought it was ten.”

Ecksell sighed with as much drama as she could muster. She ran her hand down her face, to which Padama laughed in her head. “When does it start?”

“Tonight,” Rose said, grinning.

Their conversation was cut off by murmuring from the Guardians around them. The Warlocks ceased their quiet conversation and turned in the direction of the Traveler. The Hunter being held upside down twisted to get a better look, and the Titan obligingly turned around.

A pair of Cryptarchs had stepped onto a pedestal. Neither of them looked particularly to be stared down by a huge group of Risen, but one of them stepped forward.

“As some of you may know,” she began, “we have been working in conjunction with some of the Warlocks of the Tower on various projects. One such project will be revelead today. We-”

One of her colleagues nudged her, and she looked at him, then back down at a piece of paper. More murmurs arose in the crowd.

Unfortunately, the Cryptarch got no further, as from behind her a moderately intoxicated Warlock rose as if from the Void and slung her arms around both of them.

“We’ve got something special folks!” she said in a sing-song voice. She winked at the crowd. “Let’s DECK SOME HALLS! Hit it!”

With that she gestured towards the side. Nothing happened.

“I said LET’S DECK SOME HALLS!” she roared, letting go of the Cryptarchs and waving at the sky. She unholstered her gun and looked as though she was about to fire it, which caused some of the Risen to flinch backward.

Some muffled noises from somewhere near the pedestal. And then –

Something bright blazed into being above them. Many of the Guardians around Ecksell jumped back in shock. Rose laughed aloud. Iluin shielded her eyes and grinned wider than Ecksell had ever seen her grin.

“We call it the Dawning Crystal,” the Cryptarch said, hoping to regain the advantage. “To celebrate, in a non-denominational way, all of the various traditions humanity brings to the City, even in these dark times, and to anticipate more to come.”

Through it the light of the midday sun shone like through a prism. Snow flurried about it, creating a mini-storm that the unfortunate Cryptarchs bore the brunt of. The broken silhouette of the Traveler hung around it.

The drunken Warlock had fallen into the snow and begun to make snow angels.

Ecksell felt herself laughing. More snow tickled her face, and she smiled so much her face hurt. 

She couldn’t say why she was laughing. Perhaps it was because as soon as the new snow fell, Guardians started making snowballs and one of them had gotten Rose directly in the face, or how the upside-down Hunter refused to be let go of but still gathered snow and threw it counter-clockwise at the Warlock taking notes, or how the children shrieked and renewed their assault on their Hunter friend with extreme prejudice, this time snowballs in hand –

Rose grabbed Iluin by the goofy Warlock collar and kissed her, hard. They had been together for years now, but there was still a tinge of a blush in Rose’s cheeks. Iluin wrapped her arms around Rose and lifted her off the ground.

“Wow,” Padama said, voice tinged with excitement. He appeared beside her in a flash of Light. “I haven’t seen you this happy in a long time, Ecksell.”

Ecksell grabbed Padama and kissed him on one of his mechanical ridges. He floated back, spluttering helplessly.

“For the holiday,” Ecksell said, and winked at him.

Padama looked like he wanted to say something, but then just drifted back into her hood. He nestled against her neck.

“Still gonna wait for the bounties and go to sleep?” Padama asked her.

“Yeah, well, I guess I could stick around for the Sledding.”

“I thought you hated that idea.”

“I never said that.”

“I could tell.”

Ecksell smiled. “I do.”

“Right.”

They were silent for a few more moments. Rose disengaged, stared into Iluin’s eyes and giggled. Then she bent down, gathered up an armful of snow faster than the eye could see, and shoveled it directly into Iluin’s face.

“Happy Dawning, Ecksell.”

“Yeah, uh. Yeah. Happy Dawning, buddy.”

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Dawning, Guardians!
> 
> This was a story I actually planned to have done last year, but I didn't finish it quite fast enough. Oh well - I rewrote it a bit, so I think it's a little better for the wait!
> 
> Next up is the Sledding! I hope to have it done for Christmas Day, but it might be later.


End file.
